WEEK 71 - December 25, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

I don't really have time to email, so I'll just give you all a quick rundown on my exciting week.

So on Wednesday, all the missionaries from Cagayan traveled into Laoag, so we got them settled in a hotel. While all that was going on, President Andrada interviewed Mhylez and Wellington Alejandro. They passed the interview and President said he was very impressed with them and was very excited for them and their baptism. We ended up at the office pretty late that night preparing for the Thursday morning activity. By Thursday morning, all the missionaries from the whole mission were all gathered at the mission home. We had a real fun activity with lots of games, water balloon fight, etc. Lots of fun to see everybody enjoy so much. 

Later that night, everybody got changed into their PLM polo shirt and dressed up nice for our Mission Dinner/Social night. Every zone performed their cultural dance, and some other presentations were included. It was a lot of fun, lots of laughing. The food was real good, and was just a lot of fun being around everybody having a good time. Also some of the RMs came back and visited the mission including Daryll Costales!! haha So much fun seeing that guy (editor: Ryan's trainer). 

five generations of trainers & their trainees

APs & office elders

Friday morning was the Mission Conference. We managed to squeeze everybody into the small little cultural hall and got to hear a few trainings from President and Sister Andrada. Then we had our big lunch. Sister Andrada went all out with buying gifts for everybody. She bought shoes, new shirts, candy, snacks and other gifts for a lot of missionaries. We also did a big mission-wide gift exchange. Last month when President was interviewing all the missionaries, he had them pick one name out randomly, and that's who they would get the gift for. I picked Elder Swann, so I customized a hat and put a picture of a swan on it hahaha... But yeah the gift exchange was fun, and got missionaries who don't really know each other to start talking to each other. Then we finished the conference and sent all the missionaries back to their areas. After all these events were done, we were absolutely exhausted. But looking back on it, it was a lot of fun.

A surprise Christmas carol serenade at the mission home on December 24th

Even though all these Christmas events were a lot of fun, the best part of the week was on Saturday. The Alejandro family was baptized! Mhylez, Wellington, and their two kids, Paul and Joshua were baptized together as a family. We combined with the Ward 1 elders who also had 4 baptisms.  So it was a nice big baptismal service. On Sunday they were confirmed, and they are feeling spiritually blessed :) 

Love the work and the joy it brings to others and into my life. It's such a blessing to be a tool in the Lord's hands in helping others come unto him, and having me grow spiritually through doing so. 

Love you all, Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 70 - December 19, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

First of all, I got an email from some random guy telling me that this blog makes it in the top 100 Philippines blogs in the world! haha so good job Mom. I was hoping we would be top 10 or something like that, but turns out we are number 84. But anyway, that made me laugh. Also congrats to Elizabeth on her Mission Call!! Very Excited for you!! (editor: cousin Elisabeth DeLong has been called to serve in the Taiwan, Taipei Mission,  Mandarin speaking, reporting April 25th.)

Ok, so it is sooo cold here! The past week we haven't been using our A/C at night or even our electric fans. This is the coldest I have ever remembered it getting here in Laoag - it's incredible! The only problem is still the cold showers... Brutal. 

Well this last week was a full of a lot of preparing for two things. First, for the Christmas celebration of the Mission. Tomorrow, all the missionaries will be here in Laoag. We will have a fun activity in the morning and then at night we will have our Christmas Party. Every Zone has a prepared dance presentation to perform and there will be lots of foods, gift exchanges, singing etc. It will be a lot of fun. Then on Friday we have our Christmas Conference. So it will be a busy next two days. 

The other thing we have been preparing for is the baptism of the Alejandro Family this Saturday! This past week we have been focusing on getting the kids ready, because the parents are good to go. They all came to the Ward Christmas Party last night and had a really good time with all the members. So we are so excited for them and their baptism on Saturday. 

We are so happy with the success we are having in the work right now. At church the other day we had 8 investigators attend. And then last night at the Christmas Party, 17 of our investigators attended. The Lord is helping us a lot to have success in the work even though we are busy with other responsibilities sometimes. The past few weeks I have been able to print out all of the J-Co devotionals and read them. (editor:  members of the extended Jenkins family take turns during the month of December to share a devotional on our family facebook page.) And I have truly been inspired and uplifted by the things you have all testified and shared about. I am truly blessed to live in such a Gospel centered family that relies on the Lord and trusts in his plan. I love you all so much! Merry Christmas!!

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 69 - December 11, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVO!! Big 22!! you can now rent a car or something. (is that right?) Love ya brother, have a good one. 

Well believe it or not, it's a little cold here. Not cold in the afternoons, but in the morning and at night it's been a little chilly lately. Which is making my cold showers in the morning even colder. (editor: I looked it up... low of 70.) Christmas is getting closer and closer and you can feel it in the city. There is a Christmas event at the plaza almost every night, which gives us a nice opportunity to talk to a lot of people.

Speaking of events at the plaza, our "Light the World" event turned out great! Last Monday we were at the church for 5 hours trying to put a nice little choir together. It kinda turned into a me telling people to be quiet, listen, and stop messing around kinda day. Tuesday after our MLC meeting in the morning we gathered everybody in the zone together again for our last practice before the big event. It was kinda hectic and we definitely could of used more time and practice, but it was good enough. So we all walked over to the plaza. There were a total of 70 missionaries in the choir, so there were a lot of us. Our part was at the middle of the program, so when it was our turn to perform, there were lots of people in the plaza. After the first song, it was our (APs & office elders) turn to give our little presentation. I think once we got up there everybody's voices started shaking a bit. It was also our first time singing with mics, so we were all off a bit, but it turned out pretty decent. We all wish we could perform it again cuz it was a lot of fun. Definitely a good memory that we won't forget. Altogether, the event went really well. We didn't get too many referrals from it, but we definitely got the missionaries more well known in Laoag. There have been a few times where we will be out working and then somebody will come up and say, "Hey we were at your concert the other night!" haha So it was a very successful event. I'll try to get the file from President that has all the pictures on it, because I didn't have my camera with me during the thing. So I'll try to send some pics and videos soon.

Besides that, we had an awesome week of work. We were able to make daily contact with the two families that are progressing and both the families were able to make it to church yesterday. One of the families has a baptismal date of the 23rd. The other family's baptism date is on January 6. They have come to church 2 times now and are reading the Book of Mormon consistently. This next week we will have 2 sets of exchanges with ZLs, so we will be able to get a lot of work done. 

The other day I finished the Book of Mormon again, and continue to feel its great spiritual power, especially as I read through the last chapters of Moroni. As I try and reflect what effect this "Spiritual Power" has on me, I always seem to think back to Samuel the Lamanite standing upon a wall crying repentance. People are trying to kill him, throwing stones and shooting arrows. The stones seem to miss or fall short of him, and even the sharp arrows can't seem to pierce his skin.  All of this because of the spiritual "shield" that he has around him. That is the kind of shield that I want with me every day. Something to protect me from the sins and temptations of the world. I've realized that through scripture study, sincere prayer, a clean mind, and a pure heart, this spiritual protection can be with me all day. The companionship of the Holy Ghost and the spiritual power I am given through the Atonement are such blessings in my life.

Love you all, have a nice Christmassy week :)

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 68 - December 4, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

Well, we just finished off another busy transfer week. This was my 4th one, so I feel pretty used to it and it's all pretty routine for us now. It's an exciting week for sure, but after our meetings on Friday when everything was finished up, we are all pretty happy that it was over. 

So this transfer, we had 5 new missionaries come in. Three Filipina sisters, 1 Australian elder, and also one sister from Pakistan! Now that was pretty interesting, the Pakistani sister. She doesn't really speak English, and of course doesn't speak Tagalog. So we had to be creative in finding ways to communicate with her. Us APs and the office elders decided to study a little bit of the language of Pakistan so that we would at least know how to say "Hello", and "How are you" when she got here. But when we approached her at the airport and tried to say some Pakistani words to her, she just chuckled haha. She ended up being able to speak a little bit of English though, so it all worked out. 

Dinner with new missionaries

Also, we found out that the trainer of the one Australian elder would be elder Maharry, the trainee of Elder Reyes. So my bloodline in the mission has extended haha. I now have a great grandson :)

Elder Jenkins and his "mission posterity" 

So we didn't have much time to work last week, but when we did have any free time, we would spend it inviting everybody to attend the Light the World event on Tuesday. They really wouldn't seem too interested, so we just started telling them to attend our "Concert". That seemed to make them way more interested and a lot of them said they would for sure go haha. The location of the event is at the "Central Park" of Laoag, so we are sure there will be a large attendance. We are very excited. It will be a great missionary opportunity.

"Concert" rehearsal

Yesterday, we had 7 investigators attend church. We were pretty happy with that number considering that we didn't really get to work last week. The one family that has been progressing the past few weeks is doing great. The dad didn't make it to church yesterday, we aren't sure why. After this upcoming event on Tuesday, we are excited to be able to focus again on the work and get lots of progression going again in the area. 

These past few days of December, I made it a goal to really focus my studies on Jesus and His life. When reading in the New Testament and in Jesus the Christ, I always seem to realize or notice something about Jesus that strengthens my testimony of Him, and my relationship with Him. Every single day I seem to find myself on my knees more thankful than I was before for the grace and mercy that He gives me every single day. It is such a blessing to be a member of the true, restored church of Jesus Christ, and to be able to fully enjoy the blessings of His Church. There is nothing more I want for the people I teach than to also enjoy these blessings.

Love you, have a nice week!:)

-Elder Jenkins

Service with a smile...

dishes at the mission home after a big dinner.

Perks of "meeting" with the Zone Leaders - homemade bread!!

WEEK 67 - November 27, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

Well everybody here was a little sad earlier because Miss Philippines didn't make the top 5 in the Miss Universe Pageant. We were getting haircuts and everybody seemed to be pretty focused on the TV. As well as the guy cutting my hair... so the haircut didn't turn out too well. Good thing Miss USA didn't take the 5th spot or the barber probably would've taken it out on me. The good news is Elder Basa didn't get transferred!! haha We couldn't believe it. He has been here as AP for 9 months, and now he will finish his mission here with us, so we are real excited about that. It will be a fun Christmas!

APs and Office Elders with President & Sister Andrada

So this last week was a really busy one. As you know, on Monday we traveled to Cagayan and had Zone conference. Then on Thursday and Friday we had the other two Zone conferences to finish off the cycle. On Thursday, President helped us celebrate Thanksgiving by taking us out to dinner. Unfortunately, there was no turkey, stuffing, or any of Grandma's famous Ham Sauce. But we did enjoy a nice meal. President really helped us enjoy the week by taking us out to dinner plenty of times. So we are very thankful for that.

Back in one of his old areas for Zone Conference.

with Elder Wineberg (MTC companion) and 

Elder Mortenson (in the MTC together & friend from Alpine, UT)

So we have something coming up next week that we are really excited for. We will be putting up a stage at Centro Plaza of Laoag and be putting on a "Light the World" program. Us missionaries will be performing some songs, the Mayor will be giving a speech, its gonna be a good time, and a really good missionary opportunity. At one of the zone conferences last week,  the office elders and us APs sang a nice little song, so we were asked to prepare a song for this event on Dec. 5th. It's gonna happen in Centro Laoag, so there should be a lot of people. As for the people we have been teaching, they are still doing well. We weren't able to really work at all this last week, so we are in need of a nice week of work. But they are still reading the Book of Mormon, and as long as that is happening, they will progress. 

The other day I realized and felt something that hopefully I can remember all the time throughout my life and that is the satisfying, happy feeling of being obedient to the Lord. Everything seems to work out better when we are simply obedient to His commandment and as we try to obey His words as well as the counsel of the Brethren. By doing so we can feel a satisfying feeling that we are doing the right thing and doing what the Lord wants. 

Sorry this isn't the best email. We were busy with transfer stuff earlier today and then it took me 20 minutes to log onto my email. Love you all, talk to ya next week!

-Elder Jenkins

WEEK 66 - November 22, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody!

Another full, busy week down! Hopefully you are getting used to me sometimes writing on Monday, sometimes on Wednesday. So much business. This last week was a busy one, but it gets busier and crazier next week!

This last week we had 2 more sets of exchanges with some Zone Leaders, so we got a lot of work done again in our area. Our work paid off on Sunday when 9 investigators came to church again. The Ward is really getting excited about the missionary work because of all these new investigators that are coming to church. All the Auxiliary leaders are getting involved in teaching and fellowshipping these people, and because of them, we are having success. On Saturday we had the Baptism of Len Len! She has been an investigator for a long time now, so we were excited for her.

The Alejandro family is still progressing real well. They came to church on Sunday again for all 3 hours. The husband wasn't able to make it because if he went, he probably would have got fired from his job. He just started as a Tricycle driver, so he needs to be driving for a certain amount of days before he can go absent. But they both want them and their family to get baptized this December. One of the families that we have been teaching for about 4 months now finally came to church for the first time! We were so excited and they were real happy to finally make it. So we have two progressing families right now that we are working with. The work is going good. 

On Monday morning, we hit the road once again and headed out to Aparri for the Cagayan Zone Conference. We got there and the weather was niceee. Wasn't too hot and was nice and windy. Made me miss working in Aparri a bit haha. We did have time to stop by the house of one of my old investigators. They couldn't believe it when they saw me. They were screaming and laughing saying they thought that I went home. Was a fun quick reunion. The Zone Conference went good. We gave our training well and then got to hear a lot from President about what they talked about at their Mission President Seminar last week. Weird to think this was my 3rd time driving out for the Cagayan Zone Con. Time is going fast. 

So we have started our preparation for this Christmas here in Laoag. Like last time, we will have a fun day of activities and Christmas "Party" with the whole mission and then the next day we will have our Mission Conference. While preparing, we got to see this years "Light the World" video. I was touched by this video. Many times in the video, it shows Christ reaching His arm out to other sand helping them up off the ground. As I watched this, I realized that I want to try harder to be more Christlike by helping and lifting others up. Not only the people I am teaching, but my fellow missionaries here in the mission.  As I have been trying to do this, I have really gotten into the Christmas spirit of service to others. My parents have always told me since I was a little boy that giving gifts is a lot better that receiving them. And it is so true. Lifting others up and helping them feels a lot better than opening up any gift. Service to others and reflecting on the life that Christ lived, and what He did really changes the way you look at Christmas. I am so grateful for the gift that Christ gives to all of us, and so grateful for the example he set for all! I know, it's a little early for a Christmas testimony, but I guess I'm just a bit excited for this Christmas.

Love you all so much! Talk to ya next week.

-Elder Jenkins

Light the World link (this is from 2017... 2018 will be release the day after Thanksgiving... unless you are serving in the Philippines & get a sneak peak):  

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/light-the-world-25-days-of-service?lang=eng 

WEEK 65 - November 13, 2017 (Laoag, Philippines)

Hello Everybody,

Well, it has only been 4 days since the last time I wrote, so I don't have too much to update you all on. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we were able to focus full on the work in our area which was nice. It really seems right now that things are going really, really good in our area. We have tons of progressing investigators and have been experiencing a lot of success in the work. Yesterday we had 9 investigators attend Sacrament Meeting. One of them is named Len Len, she will be baptized this Saturday. We are really looking forward to December and baptizing a lot right before Christmas. 

The Family that we have been teaching came to church again last week. Actually a really cool experience. Last Sunday, E.Holmes, Basa and I fasted together for that family, because the thing that was keeping them from getting baptized is that they are not yet married. After we fasted for them, we went to teach them at their house. They then opened up to us and told us that the reason they haven't gotten married yet is because Mhylez (wife) was married before to a different person. And here in the Philippines it costs a ton in order to get your marriage annulled, so her and her current husband haven't been able to get married yet because they don't have that kind of money. Her and her current "husband" have been together for 9 years now. We found out that in a special case like that, they don't need to get married before baptism. They were so happy when they heard that and said they want to be baptized on Dec 9. So they and their kids are progressing real well.

Everything has really just been working out in our work. We have found a few people that told us they want to go to church before we are even able to teach them. One lady was just touched by our testimony about the Plan of Salvation when we opened our mouth and talked to her. The Lord is giving us such success. We are so grateful. 

So this next week is going to be really really busy. We will be driving out to Cagayan on Monday, having Zone Conference on Tuesday, and driving back Tuesday night. Hopefully on Wednesday I will have a few minutes to email you, but that will also be our only opportunity to work in our area because Thursday we have a Zone Conference in Batac and Vigan, and then Friday we have  the Laoag Zone Conference. Saturday we have Stake Conference and then transfer texts that night.  So if I don't get to email, just know that that's why haha.  

Love you all, have a great week! :)

Elder Jenkins

-don't have any pics for you this week sorry :(  I'll take some this week!